Just like that, Bryant's injury boosts top seed's value

Updated 11:39 pm, Saturday, April 13, 2013

There is reason to believe the Spurs will play their remaining regular-season games as if their postseason lives depended on it.

Following Friday night's developments, it might make the most sense.

If the Lakers hang on to the No. 8 spot in the Western Conference, doesn't the No. 1 seed have a lot more value after the Achilles tendon injury that ended the season of Los Angeles star Kobe Bryant?

It will take a minor miracle for the Spurs to grab the top spot. Unless the Thunder lose on their home court to either the Kings (28-51) or Bucks (37-42), even a 61-21 Spurs record won't be good enough to overtake Oklahoma City.

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The Lakers' chances of hanging on to the No. 8 seed are equally iffy after Bryant's injury.

Nevertheless, the prospect of playing a first-round series against a wounded Lakers team ought to preclude playing out the final three games of the season while sitting some players for pre-playoff rest.

Meet the Lakers in the first round, and there could be plenty of time to rest key players between a quick end to the first round and the start of the second.

It was the prospect of dealing with Bryant in the first round that made slipping out of first place in the West tolerable for the Spurs.

In Denver last week, coach Gregg Popovich rationalized extra caution in bringing Tony Parker off the injured list by reiterating that seeding wasn't as important as being healthy. His cynical pal, Nuggets coach George Karl, wondered aloud if Popovich might actually prefer his team play the Rockets or Warriors, rather than the Lakers.

Bryant has had that much impact through most of his amazing career, and these playoffs just lost a measure of intrigue when his tendon snapped as he started a drive to the basket late in Friday's game against the Warriors.

Bryant went under the knife in L.A. on Saturday afternoon, but nobody who has closely watched the arc of his career doubts he will be back on the court when the 2013-14 season begins in late October. The pre-surgery estimate for his return was set at six to nine months.

The smart money is on the short end of the prognosis. Six post-operation months will fall on Oct. 15. Bryant might be 35, but you would be a fool to bet that he won't be back on the court by then (and in today's world of online gaming, you will probably be able to make such a wager).

Nevertheless, the basketball-loving world must ponder the notion that it has seen the last of “The Black Mamba,” the “winning-time” genius whose very presence on the floor in the final seconds of a close game strikes fear in the heart of any fan whose team is playing the Lakers.

Bryant took to Facebook to make it clear he will approach recovery with the same single-mindedness that has made him known as “Mamba.” But I recall another player whose nickname evoked a fearsome creature. He discovered that a ruptured Achilles was a different sort of hurdle.

Calvin Natt was a fierce power forward — his teammates called him “Pit Bull” — who became an All-Star when he averaged 23.3 points and 7.8 rebounds for the 1984-85 Nuggets. That team fell to the eventual NBA champion Lakers in the Western Conference finals. Natt averaged 25.4 points in the first four games before sitting most of the second half of an L.A. blowout victory in Game 5.

Natt ruptured his left Achilles in the season opener in 1986. Legendary for his devotion to conditioning, he worked hard at his rehab and returned for the 1987-88 season, but he no longer was “Pit Bull.” He played only 65 games over three more seasons, including 10 with the Spurs in 1988-89.

If any player can beat a notoriously difficult injury, it is Bryant. It remains to be seen if he will still be “The Black Mamba.”